‘It's good to listen'
As The World at One turns 60, Sarah Montague reveals the secrets of its success — and the key to a good interview
BBC
- Rosie Millard
The World At One is on Monday-Friday at 1pm on BBC Radio 4. Add it to your collection.
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A month after Radio 4’s The World at One turned 60, its host for the last seven years is bullish about the show known as WATO (pronounced “what-oh”). This is certainly no time for thoughts of pensioning off the lunchtime news analysis, says Sarah Montague. “People always talk about the challenge from news podcasts, but our figures are remarkably stable.” Which are? “They bounce around 3.4 million.”
Montague, who also turns 60 in a few months’ time, came to the show after 18 years co-heading the big beast that is Today. A downscaling? Hardly. “When you’re the only presenter, you feel more responsible. It’s a liberation not to have immovable furniture, like Thought for the Day. Or the tyranny of set interviews having to run at a certain time. If it’s good, we run with it.”
WATO is also more thoughtful, she says. “It’s on at a less angry time of day. People are having their lunch. Afterwards, you get emails, rather than social media from listeners. More light than heat, is what I always say.”
I suggest that what makes her stand out amid a crowded field is that she keeps her questions short. “Really? I don’t think I think enough in advance about what I am going to ask. Oh, don’t be so self-deprecating,” she says, almost to herself. “The good thing is being able to listen.” Indeed, the mark of a classy interviewer.
During Covid, listening figures went through the roof
Sarah Montague
The show is probably the most dynamic of the four daily news sequences on Radio 4. If something is really good, Montague explains, the whole running order is ripped up. “It’s The World at One, not The World when We Had the 9am Meeting. You chuck things out of the window, lay the structure down, even as we’re on air. You’re trying to tell the story of the day.”
Over the years, these have included some marvels, many of which have been replayed on WATO to mark the birthday: an interview with Cissie Charlton, mother of Bobby and Jack, the day before the 1966 World Cup final; Mick Jagger speaking before the Stones’ release of Let’s Spend the Night Together (in 1967, it was controversial); a teenage William Hague making his famous speech at the Conservative Party Listen conference in 1977; interviews with world leaders Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. More recently, in 2005 the show was extended to help keep the public informed after the 7/7 bombings in central London.
James Naughtie
presenting The World
at One in 1988. Getty
And now? Montague says that with so many working from home, the programme has had something of a boost. “During Covid, listening figures went through the roof. I think people came to us and stayed because we make inaccessible subjects accessible. The longterm challenge is to reach younger people, so Evan Davis and I do a podcast [Figuring It Out, available on BBC Sounds].”
Montague, who doesn’t relish a huge personal profile, made the news five years ago, after realising that she was paid a lot less than equivalent male colleagues. After a public row about fair pay for women at the BBC, she won a £400,000 settlement and an apology. Has the experience left her unscathed? “Are you unscathed after anything like that?” she asks. “It was formative. I was very uncomfortable, because I like my job. I was glad to get the whole thing behind me and carry on. Although I can still summon up the anger, let’s be honest.” How is the situation now? “Better. The next struggle within the BBC is class. Whether you went to Oxbridge or not is less of an issue, but class has still to be addressed.”
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How does she consider her own headline birthday? “I’ve never really cared about getting older. I was cited as an ‘older woman’ at the BBC when I was 41. Although radio has got more visual, so maybe I should care. Sometimes I think maybe I should have…” Some Botox? “No, not Botox! No, sometimes I think maybe I should put on a bit more make-up.”
Authors
Rosie Millard
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